Rotten
by Sinine
Summary: So, I wrote this while I had a fever and couldn't sleep, I'm sure it sucks ass really because you know fevers and yeah. I don't even know if I'll finish it. Pairing is Solkat, Sollux, Karkat and Terezi fight to survive in an apocalypse.


It hadn't been all that long, since the apocalypse hit. Maybe about a month or two. Nonetheless, surviving out here with nothing but two sickles attached to your belt and hope was extremely difficult. And it had begun to gradually get more and more challenging as time passed.

Karkat Vantas, eight sweeps old, stood in a heavily wooded area. Bloodstained hands gripping his sickles in case he was surprise attacked. His breath was thrown off, his exhales short but coming fast. Sweat ran down his forehead, and his damp bangs clung to his grey skin. He had been running for about two days now, and the Alternian sun would be rising soon. He had to find shelter. But where?

He looked around, every direction only having a seeming to be an endless path of trees. He wasn't exactly sure how he got into these woods, anyways. All he remembered was running from a pack of infected trolls and eventually losing them when he ran into the trees. They were here somewhere, and it definitely wasn't safe to be sticking around too long. With a sigh, he headed the opposite direction from where he came.

He tried to keep his footsteps quiet, the autumn leaves on the ground made that nearly impossible though. He continued to trek through the forest until he recognized the blueish trees that his old friend, Terezi, had once described to him. Could he be near her hive? As he continued to walk, he kept his eyes out for a hive in the trees near him.

Terezi, along with ten other trolls, was a friend of his that'd he known for quite awhile now. But shorty before the apocalypse, they all lost contact. Karkat had been alone since then, only with his lusus who he called Crabdad. But one day while he was sitting in his recreationblock, something broke the window near his door. A groaning, rust-blooded troll had begun to slowly crawl inside his hive. Karkat had jumped to his feet and withdrew his sickle, but his lusus had already approached the infected creature and started attempting to fight him off. The troll latched onto his lusus' shoulder, digging it's fangs into him as Crabdad let out an ear-piercing shriek. He yanked away, only resulting in a piece of flesh being ripped off his arm. The infected troll devoured it hungrily, his lusus' red blood splattered on his face. Karkat had to force himself to quickly approach the infected troll, sneaking up behind it and putting his sickle to it's neck. He slit it's throat quickly, stabbing it in the shoulder as well when he pulled away. The troll collapsed, hissing and spitting as brown blood quickly spilled out around it's squirming figure until it finally fell limp.

Soon after the incident, Crabdad got sick. He started vomitting, wouldn't eat and eventually tried attacking Karkat. It was a harsh decision to make, but Karkat had to murder his own lusus to save his own life as well as end his suffering. Karkat soon left his hive, more trolls showing up day by day. He had been on the run since.

At last he had come across a beaten looking hive, the windows of it broken and different shades of blood splattered all over the outside of it. Could the infected trolls climb? He quietly approached the tree that held the hive, crouching low to the ground. When he reached it, he placed his hand lightly on the tree, looking up and listening for any familiar moans that an infected individual would make. He heard nothing, so he slowly started to climb the tree, branch after branch.

About halfway up the tree, something from atop pounced on him and sent him flying to the ground with a grunt. The troll who pounced on him landed on the ground as well, but disappeared when Karkat regained his vision. Rubbing his head and grabbing one of his sickles, he hissed, "Who's out there? Show yourself, bulgemunch."

Suddenly, Karkat's sickle was lifted out of his hand and tossed to the side with a thud. When he reached out to get it, a white shoe stepped on his arm, forcing him to fall to the ground again. He looked up, the troll's red and blue eyes were glowing and staring down at him.

It was his friend, Sollux.

"No no oh god please don't tell me you're infected," Karkat looked up at him with saddened eyes, and the psionic troll just stared down at him with a blank expression. "I don't want to have to fight you too."

The Gemini moved his foot away, crouching down and examining Karkat carefully before finally speaking up. "KK-? Ith that you?" He stood up straight again, offering his hand to Karkat to help him stand.

"No, it's Gamzee." Karkat retorted sarcastically, rejecting the hand and standing up on his own. "What are you doing out here, Captor?"

"I found thith hive," Sollux looked up at the hive in the tree. "And I found TZ in there too. The'th pretty thick, tho I've been protecting her while the health, can't jutht let a friend thuffer. I'm leaving when the'th healthy again. I pounced on you becauthe I thought you were infected..thorry about that, by the way."

"Dumbass, I would have been moaning loudly if I were infected."

"Thut the fuck up, bulgebreathe."

The familiar arguing between Karkat and his friend cheered him up a little, it was the first socializing he'd done in days. He reached over and grabbed his sickle, placing it back in his belt.

"You want to go up in the hive before the thun cometh up, I pretthume?" Sollux walked past Karkat and stood next to the tree. Karkat didn't realize just how exhausted the Gemini looked. Hs clothes were flithy, the side of his shirt ripped a little. His yellow symbol had some jade blood stained on it. His hair was disgustingly greasy, though Karkat figured his wasn't much better. His glasses were missing, and Karkat remembered from when him and Sollux would video chat he would always wear them.

"Well yeah, I don't want to end up like Terezi." Okay, so that wasn't the best comment to make. But Sollux just ignored it and extended his hands, red and blue sparks of energy floating around them as Karkat was lifted into the air, legs flailing. "I can climb up the tree myself, you know. Put me down."

Sollux smirked, noting that Karkat wasn't finding this position very comfortable. He shook him in the air a little teasingly and Karkat squirmed some more, shouting curse words at him.

_Wow, he manages to be a complete prick even when our lives are in danger._ Karkat thought, crossing his arms. "Just put me in the damn tree already, asshat."

"Fine fine, pithy pantth." Sollux lifted him into the tree, dropping him on the doorstep of the hive as he floated himself up. When he landed he rubbed his temples. "Thith ith giving me a headache, I've uthed my powerth too much today."

"Serves you right," Karkat retorted, standing and opening the door to the hive. "You're the one who shook me in the air and just wasted your energy."

"Oh pleathe you're tho thmall it doethnt take hardly any energy at all to lift you up."

"Shut your fucking protein chute before I-" Karkat's sentence was irrupted by a mucus-filled coughing sound coming from the respiteblock in the hive. He followed it while Sollux kept watch out the window.

When he approached the respsiteblock he peeked inside, seeing a shaking figure curled up on a beanbag. She was curled around a scalemate, and her cheeks were a bright teal color. Small moans of pain escaped her parted lips. It was none other than Terezi.

"Jegus, Terezi. What the fuck happened to you?"

She rose her head weakly, looking at him though she couldn't see anything. She was blind. "K-Karkles? What're.. you d-doing here?"

"I ran into Sollux.. he let me stop by while the sun is in the sky." Though that wasn't the full story, Karkat really didn't feel like explaining it anyways.

Terezi let out a weak, forced giggle. " Blast has been really nice and helpful lately." She coughed, talking too much at once.

"Yeah I guess." Karkat winced at her coughing, it was harsh and very loud. He decided now wouldn't be a good time to be a selfish asshole. "Have you eaten?"

Terezi replied with a shake of her head, blindly reaching for her glasses and putting them on her face. "It's okay though, I'm not that hungry."

"I think it's best you ate," Karkat started toward the door. "I'll go see what you have in your nutritionblock."

Without waiting for Terezi to protest, Karkat walked out of the respiteblock and walked around the hive, searching for the nutritionblock. Once he found it, he looked into the thermal hull for something Terezi could eat. He found some fruits, different kinds of grubsauces and different carbonated drinks. ..Was there seriously cold chalk in here? Karkat shook his head in annoyance. No wonder Terezi was sick, she ate _chalk._

Grabbing a couple fruits, Karkat started off for Terezi's respite block again, only to run smack into Sollux on his way there.

"Watch it, nubhornth." He hissed sarcastically, shoving Karkat back a little. He looked at the fruit and raised one of his eyebrows curiously. "Wow, you've only been in here for a couple minuteth and you're already raiding TZ'th nutritionblock?"

Oh how Karkat couldn't believe this. "No you arrogant bulgesucking fuckass," He hissed, brushing past him. "MAYBE I was taking this over to Terezi. Ever thought of that? No, of course you didn't." Karkat didn't wait for his reply, but heard it as he was walking anyways.

"Jethuth, okay you don't have to thnap at me like that you colotthhal fucknub."

With a snort, Karkat stormed into the respiteblock. He shoved the fruit into Terezi's hand and whipped around, walking out. "I'm going to go keep watch."

He didn't know what Terezi's reaction was to the fruit being shoved into her hand, but he didn't care.

Once he was in the recreationblock again, Sollux was nowhere to be seen. Oh well. Walking over to the window to watch the woods cautiously, he tripped over something on the floor, landing flat on his face. Karkat sat up with a hiss, rubbing his nose. "Who the fuck puts things in the middle of the floor so trolls can trip over-"

It wasn't a thing, it was Sollux curled up on the floor with his fingers to his temples.

With a sigh, he prodded him lightly. Lowering his voice, taking note of the Gemini's severe migraines. "What's wrong with you? I don't want to deal with two sick trolls."

Sollux let out a moan, hiding his face in his arms. "My head hurtth."

"Of course it does," Karkat rolled his eyes, wrapping his arms around the Gemini and hauling him up to his feet as he stood.

Sollux let out a protesting groan, trying to wiggle himself from Karkat's grip. Sollux was surprisingly really light, even if he was a lot taller than Karkat. "Goddammit Sollux stop moving around I'm just getting you to the fucking couch." And with that, Sollux stopped squirming and just went limp in Karkat's arms.

_Pathetic, he can't even haul himself to the couch? _Karkat huffed to himself, dragging the larger troll toward the couch. _Well, he probably could. He just chooses to be a fucking ass and make me grubsit him._

Once Karkat got him to the couch, Sollux curled up on it and mumbled, "Thankth. Can you keep watch, KK?"

"Was going to do it anyway."

"Good, wathnt really a choice."

Karkat walked over to the window and peered outside. You could get a pretty decent view of this half of the woods, excluding the branches blocking the ground directly below the tree. It would be fairly easy to spot danger from here. Watching the still woods as it slowly got brighter outside, Karkat felt his eyes start to droop. _No, no falling asleep Vantas. _He continued to scold himself, looking back at Sollux every now and then. The Gemini was rubbing his temples still, letting out little moans. It was almost pitiful. _Almost._

Karkat lasted until the sun was almost fully in the sky, thank Gog the window's glass was slightly dimmed so the sun didn't seem so bright.

Being so sleep deprived, Karkat rested his chin on his hand as his eyes slid closed. _Only for a couple minutes. _He told himself over and over again.

And with that, Karkat drifted off into sleep.


End file.
